Supervisors: court building money, dog teams, and air service

With the State of California still short of money, officials had earlier ordered that new county court building projects to be reassessed, cut back or even cancelled. Inyo Supervisors planned to send a letter to the State urging continuation with the Inyo project.

Inyo County was on the list for a new, $30 million court building in Bishop. Then, in late April the California Judicial Council issued a press release to say that Inyo County’s project was among 13 that would not move forward but would be “reassessed to find significant ways to reduce costs, including, where feasible, reducing square footage, undertaking renovations of existing buildings instead of new construction, evaluating lease options, and using lower-cost construction methods.”

The earlier press release said that Inyo’s project would have to be reduced up to 14% at that point. The Legislature had spent at least $1.7 million in court construction funds on other budget problems last fiscal year.

At today’s Inyo Supervisors meeting, Administrator Kevin Carunchio was expected to ask the Board to receive an update from Inyo Superior Court on the status of the new court project and to consider sending a letter in support of securing the funding.

In Mono County, the Supervisors expected to consider the cost of developing the Old Sheriff’s Sub-Station into living quarters and a museum for Jim Ouiment of Mammoth Dog Teams. Ouimet currently rents that building as a headquarters for his dog sled business. The Supervisors will consider upgrading the old building and asking Ouimet to serve as a caretaker for the considerable amount of county-owned heavy equipment stored in the same location.

A controversial topic was also scheduled to come up at today’s Mono Board meeting. Jon Urdi, head of Mammoth Lakes Tourism, planned to talk to the Board about an air service guarantee of $100,000 to cover 2012 summer and fall air service. The Board agenda said the actual consideration of this request will take place in later budget hearings.

While some Supervisors support an air service subsidy, others say their constituents have different priorities.

About Benett Kessler

Always interested in writing, Benett was the editor of her high school paper, proceeded to the University of Chicago and then out West where she and John Heston formed Eastern Sierra News Service in Inyo County. They fed film to KNXT in Los Angeles and co-wrote and produced the first daily radio news in the Eastern Sierra. Their work ranged from a published news magazine to the first television newscast. They continued to provide videotaped news to KABC and other news outlets. After a seat on the Mammoth Times board and work as newswriter, Benett formed her own company, Sierra Broadcasters and launched an FM radio station, now KSRW and a broadcast television station, KSRW-TV33. The latest addition - Sierrawave.net. Her company motto: Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.

6 Responses to Supervisors: court building money, dog teams, and air service

Mono county tries to kick the sled guy out of the building for who knows what ridiculous reason.
Now someone has the bright idea to let him stay and keep track of all the equipment the county stores there.

It is a lot cheaper to add paint and carpet and make a bathroom wheelchair friendly to the substation building than it is to repair or replace heavy equipment worth thousands of dollars that is not being watched….Give Mr. Ouimet a proper place to conduct his business and he will watch the county’s equipment. It sounds like a WIN-WIN to me.

As a paying tenant they really do need to accommodate Mr. Ouimet. He needs access to a habitable facility so that he can properly care for his dogs and himself. They are living animals that completely depend on him. His focus needs to be on caring for them and not if he has running water and shelter from his landlord. The sub-station was a functioning building and open for Mr. Ouimet’s dog team business a couple of years ago…It should require very little funding to get it in the same condition today.

I think they should be happy to have Mr. Ouimet on the premises as a caretaker. During these tough economic times vandalism and theft of heavy equipment parts and fuel is on the rise. This is a frequently reported fact just over the mountains in Fresno. Having him and his dogs guarding the county’s expensive assets is good for the county. Basic caretaker’s quarters should be a no brainer for Mr. Ouimet’s services.